The Dems who bucked Obama

Nearly all of the 11 Democrats who voted against the economic stimulus package Wednesday had an incentive other than the plan’s hefty price tag: Nine of them hold districts carried by John McCain in 2008. While none cited that fact when explaining why they bucked President Barack Obama and House Democratic leaders, there is little doubt that the conservative nature of their seats colored their votes.

“The speaker has said many times that the members are representative of their district,” said Brendan Daly, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “Many of the districts are more conservative, and they campaigned on fiscal responsibility, and we understand that.”

Story Continued Below

The congressional district voting analysis was compiled by the Swing State Project, a Democratic blog. While the data are unofficial, they track closely with past presidential performance results in those districts.

Among the 11 are four freshmen from Republican-oriented districts who narrowly won election in 2008. One of them, Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-Md.), is already facing the prospect of a rematch with a GOP opponent he defeated by less than 1 percent.

“We need to make some tough choices about where we can and can’t afford to be spending taxpayer money,” Kratovil said after the vote, “and I’m not convinced that this package focused enough of its spending on the programs most likely to have a short-term economic impact.”

Kratovil’s vote came as little surprise to Maryland Democrats, who note that he holds a seat that had been in GOP hands for 16 years.

“I do know that he has a very unique challenge on his hands,” said Maryland Democratic Party Executive Director Quincey Gamble.

Gamble said retaining the seat would require that Kratovil keep close tabs on the political pulse on the district and that he would ultimately legislate from the center on spending issues — something he promised on the campaign trail last fall.

Just two of the 11 Democratic no votes, Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee and Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, represent seats that voted for Barack Obama. For them, the discretionary spending was too much to swallow.

“We face the most challenging economic crisis since the Great Depression,” said Kanjorski in a statement, “yet this bill merely throws money at the problem by expanding existing programs.”

The day after his no vote, Cooper, a budget hawk and member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog coalition, expressed frustration over what he said was leadership’s lack of outreach in the drafting of the bill.